Trimmin' the Synthetic Tree Substitution

We set up our fake tree last night. It was meant to be an all day event BUT we decided to put it in a corner that had no baseboard trim and so such had to be found in our architectural salvage pile, cut, and installed. Then cleaned. Then the tree and accoutrement's had to be located, cleaned, sorted, and THEN the lights didn't work and had to be spliced and repaired. Not the holly jolly time we had been looking forward to.

During the course of our search for our one little, tiny box of childhood ornaments the thought occurred: When did families, our families, go from decking the tree in kid made, collected, and personal ornaments to a Martha Stewart designer competition for the perfect home decor? When did our childhood art/fun ornaments get relegated to dump box in favor of plastic and glass perfection on a hook? So why am I inheriting that? I don't have to- it's a choice, not a tradition.

When did our lives get like that? How do we undo the damage of "look, don't touch/eat"?

Historically trees were trimmed with presents, food, and paper craft. Next year, when we have a new old house, we will have a real tree with real ornaments made by our very real family. This year we will enjoy what we have and add what we can. This year we added candy canes to offer guests and we will be adding more as the weeks go by. It will still be beautiful, but touchable.

Turkey Noodles

Turkey Tetrazzini

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 package uncooked spaghetti
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.5 cups seasoned chicken broth
• 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup half & half
  
• 1 + 1/4 cups shredded Parmesan (Asiago and Romano blend, yum) cheese
• 2 cups chopped cooked turkey
• 2 coves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add spaghetti, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain, and place in the prepared baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute garlic and onion
   
4. Stir in flour. Mix in chicken broth and milk/cream. Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Stir in about 1 cup Parmesan cheese, and remove from heat.
5. Mix chicken broth mixture and turkey with spaghetti. Top with remaining cheese. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until surface is lightly browned.

Even better and leftovers the next day, which is funny to me since I made it with leftovers......
I got the base recipe off of allrecipes but changed it a bit according to the reviews and what I had on hand. Enjoy!
* Note: Lil'Bug calls it Turkey Noodles.

Our Traditions for Turkey Day

Our traditions here are fairly new, as in about 11 years old. That's how long we've been together. We go to the in-law's, we don't cook, we try to help and end up getting in the way, we enjoy good food, my dearest picks a fight with his brother, everyone but brother has a good laugh. We pack up the leftovers and head home.

I think the food is the tradition. We always have turkey, sweet potato casserole laden with marshmallows, mashed potatoes, and a green Jell-o and nut "salad". This year grandma is in Texas for the holiday, we miss her.

This is Dearest Husband making the gravy. Gravy is very important to him.


This year we almost didn't have candied yams. Yikes. I am so glad we did. I love the marshmallow-y goodness. Nana is adding the marshmallows. Yummy.


Grampa carves the turkey breast. I don't have many pictures of Grampa. I got one today!


LIl'Bug waits hungrily at the table. This is her first year not in an elevated high chair. She was so excited!


Ah yes. This is Uncle J. Oh wait. Where is he? Dinner started 45 minutes late.....where could he be? No problem. He's still at home. We called to check. Don't worry, being late to holiday feasts is his tradition. :)


So, upon reflecting on this glorious day, (a day that started for me at 5AM with Lil'Bug's latest bout of "bad poopies".....) I asked my dearest if he realized that I, at age 30, have never cooked Thanksgiving dinner? That this year all my offers to help or cook something were refused? I then asked him if I am really that bad of a cook?

"Yup," he replied, barely looking up from his computer. Then, in response to my stunned silence, he offered, "You're just inexperienced and Nana doesn't need that stressing her out in the kitchen...." He blathered on for a bit but I decided to change the subject, as my heart, fueled by sleep deprivation and pregnancy hormones, was totally broken. Just know that despite the attempted change in subject I ended up in tears. He thought he was being funny, I was over sensitive about it.

You see, I burned myself last week re-heating cheese noodles. Not an, "Ouch, that hurt," burn....a full on, thumb blistered and bleeding burn that is still healing. Then yesterday I burned the same hand, re-scorched the thumb, added the next two fingers to the emergency. My tot now knows about 17 new swear words, hearing them spew from my mouth and I cried and screamed in pain. How did I do this, you might ask? Stupid. I am a walking accident in the kitchen. I always have been. I decided to wash the stove top, but first boiled water and made a cup of tea. The grate was hot, I forgot I had just boiled water using the front burner, and grabbed it to throw it in the sink to soak. Gah. It still hurts. Yay for ice packs.

So instead of being pissed off and really sad, I am grateful that my talents are acknowledged and that means, for one day, I don't have to cook food or clean my kitchen or maim myself in the process of either. This one day I got to take lots of pictures, take a nap, AND eat pumpkin pie. Cool.

The Weather Outside is Frightful......

....but let it snow!!!! Wednesday was our first snowfall in Iowa. It wasn't supposed to do much but flurry in the afternoon, but at sunrise (Lil'Bug's new found waking up time) she ran to the window and declared snow! No kidding. We got 3-4 inches. She watched it on and off all day.


She had no snow pants or boots and so soon after a cold there was no way she was going to get to go outside and play. I'm a mean mommy. I heard about it quite a few times. We went out and bought her both today (Thanksgiving at Walmart) but today was too busy and frantic to let her loose outside.


Ah yes. The haircut. This is the first time I got a good picture of it. She hated her long, beautiful hair. Maybe she hated having me fuss over it, brush it, wash it, whatever. She's asked to have her head shaved "like Daddy's" over and over again for the last month. I took her to get a hair cut and let her pick out the cut. She eventually settled on a short bob BUT the hairdresser had ideas of her own. At the end of it Lil'Bug was almost in tears because the lady didn't take enough hair away. The lady also did a crappy job putting in "layers" that I specifically said "no" to. Next week we will go get it fixed IF Lil'Bug decides she still hates it. So far she's gotten a lot of compliments and I haven't needed to coax out knots so she's pretty happy. The thing that really rattled me was how her self expression is so much different from what I would have chosen for her. I like long hair, she wants a shaved head. I like jeans and a T-shirt, she likes pretty spinning dresses. I don't know. It was really hard for me to let go and let her choose, but I am glad I did. Everyday I get to know her better.


This is the view of snowfall from one of our front parlor's picture windows. It's a pretty view.


This is the tree Lil'Bug was watching. There were her friend squirrels running up and down and a red cardinal family. It's a White Oak that is over 100 years old. It's the only tree left in our yard still holding on to its leaves. Which is funny. All of our other trees shed them during a wind storm, which means we did zero raking this year. Didn't need too. See that lovely house and yard across the street from us? Yeah. I think they got all of our leaves and then some.